They’re an American tradition. This year included a minute-long ad that:
“[P]itches a “life-changing” solution to all this: weight-loss drugs, as offered by the telehealth startup Hims & Hers.” (source)
Of course there’s also scaremongering about the “obesity epidemic” and the implication that all only weight-loss drugs can make changes.
The product? Off-brand GLP-1 antagonists. You can think of it as off-brand Ozempic. Or off-brand Mounjaro, or Wegovy.
You may be thinking it’s “generic”. Except generics are offered after patents on the original drug expires – they haven’t – and require FDA approved testing to confirm the active ingredients are bioidentical – which hasn’t happened.
Hims & Hers is using a loophole : contracting with compounding pharmacies to make the drugs, without the testing required by the FDA.
Plus, per a letter from Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., to the acting head of the FDA:
““Nowhere in this promotion is there any side-effect disclosure, risk or safety information as would be typically required in a pharmaceutical advertisement,” they wrote.”
It looks like Hims & Hers is avoiding the expense of FDA testing AND having to make the usual disclaimers.
Living ~400lbs 